Rebate mailing lures scam artists

Recent reports are warning of what some may view as an innovative way to make money and take advantage of American citizens at the same time.  

Clever entrepreneurs have devised a mailing that looks vaguely like something the U.S. government would create (small text, no pictures, cheap paper), and they are sending this piece of mail to members of whatever mailing lists they've been able to find.  

The letter offers, for a nominal fee, to calculate the amount of tax rebate you are entitled to receive from the IRS later this summer. The IRS has already made it clear that the amount of rebate is fixed, depending on your filing status ($300 for single, $500 for head of household, $600 for married filing jointly), but there are still those uninformed citizens who may be duped into paying a fee for the information I just gave you for free.  

If you haven't received one of these letters it's probably due to a lack of time and available funds for postage stamps on the part of the scam perpetrators; it certainly is not a result of your address not being available to them. There's hardly an address in the country that can't be found on the Internet.  

The only reason we don't receive a truckload of advertising material in our mail on a daily basis is that the U.S. Post Office, bless their hearts, keeps raising the cost of postage. I'm convinced the Post Office boosts the rates on a regular basis so that it can keep the amount of advertising material its carriers have to hoist to a minimum.  

I recently went out to the street to meet my mailman, who drives a little Jeep from mailbox to mailbox in my neighborhood. He handed me my usual collection of bills and magazines. I thanked him and started to walk away when he called me back. "Wait! I'm sure you won't want to leave without these!" And he handed over an enormous armload of glossy full-color flyers and brochures that would rival the old Sears catalog in weight. He was smiling maliciously, almost daring me to drop the pile of ads down the nearby sewer grate I was eying.  

I waited until I got inside to dispose of the ad material, all of which reinforces the cleverness of these tax scammers who have disguised their mailing as something the government would send.  

In any other setting, mail from the federal government would generally be viewed as potentially lethal - a warning from the INS that your citizenship is going to be analyzed and possibly revoked, notice that your land is being condemned to make way for a new strip mall and you have 25 days to relocate, or - heaven forbid - notice of a tax audit. But in this climate, everyone is rushing to examine the mail, hoping to find the special check our government is giving us this summer.  

No matter that this check is costing taxpayers $49.5 million in printing and postage for which Congress just made a special appropriation because the IRS couldn't afford the post office bill. No matter that this check simply represents an advance payment of what would be next April's refund. All that matters is The Government is Our Friend and it is sending its citizens money in the mail.  

Enter the scam artists who are moving in on this atmosphere of goodwill and offering to calculate the amount of refund you will receive for a mere $14.95. What's $14.95 when the government is your friend and will soon send you as much as $600 of your own money?  

Whatever you do, Don't bite!  If you receive this notice, let your enthusiasm for free money wane long enough to remember that your rebate will arrive, on schedule, without your having to pay money to learn about it.  

And take solace in the fact that those who are offering this rebate calculation will have to pay tax on the money they collect, will have paid a remarkably exorbitant postage bill, and may even find themselves subjected to a thorough tax audit courtesy of our friends in the government.